Program Festival 2021 Melbourne / 17 Feb — 16 Mar Sydney / 18 Feb — 24 Mar Brisbane / 18 — 28 Feb, Canberra / 17 — 28 Feb 28 — 17 / Canberra Feb, 28 — 18 / Brisbane Mar 3 — Feb 18 / Perth SPONSORS, PARTNERS & FRIENDS OF JIFF — CHAI SPONSORS — SILVER SPONSORS — BRONZE SPONSORS — Sponsorship & advertising enquiries [email protected] 2 COVER Top: When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (pg 45); Bottom: Persian Lessons (pg 34). SPONSORS, PARTNERS & FRIENDS OF JIFF — MEDIA PARTNERS — CULTURAL & PROGRAMMING PARTNERS — FRIENDS OF JIFF — Abraham Australian Migration Lauren and Bruce Fink Anonymous Milne Agrigroup Anonymous NEXA A.I.S. Insurance Noah’s Creative Juices Arnold Bloch Leibler The Pacific Group Peter Berkowitz Project Accounting Australia Connect Plus Property Solutions PSN Family Charitable Trust Escala Partners Rampersand Fraid Family See-Saw Films Ian Sharp Jewellery Shadowlane Jackie Vidor & Phil Staub Viv and Phil Green 3 The 2021 Jewish International Film Festival CONTENTS — Highlight Events . 6 Films (alphabetical order). 8 Melbourne Schedule ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������46 Melbourne Events . 50 Sydney Schedule . 52 Sydney Events ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������54 Perth, Brisbane and Canberra Schedules. 55 Tickets & Venue Info. 64 Booking Form . 65 Index ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������67 KEEP UP WITH ALL THINGS JIFF — Subscribe to JIFF e-news ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� JIFF.COM.AU Be our friend ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������FACEBOOK.COM/JEWISHIFF Follow us . INSTAGRAM.COM/JIFF_OZ Tweet @JEWISHIFF. or follow #JIFF2021 Enquiries . [email protected] or (03) 9524 7955 FESTIVAL TEAM — EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR............... Lindy Tamir TRAILER ..........................Hudson Sowada ARTISTIC DIRECTOR . Eddie Tamir MATERIALS & CONVERSIONS ...... JORR Pty Ltd. FESTIVAL & MARKETING PUBLICITY ......................... Original Spin MANAGER ........................Erin Rosenberg MARKETING ASSISTANT ..........Jaymes Durante A SPECIAL THANKS TO THE DEDICATED TEAMS COPYWRITERS.. Erin Rosenberg & Jaymes Durante AT CLASSIC, LIDO AND RITZ CINEMAS, LUNA FESTIVAL IDENTITY & DESIGN . Kylie Holmes CINEMAS LEEDERVILLE, ROSEVILLE CINEMAS, WEB DEVELOPMENT .......................Chook DENDY CINEMAS, AND NEW FARM CINEMAS. 4 Welcome A NOTE FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR — It is such a pleasure to present JIFF on the big screen after the tumult of 2020. Our decision to postpone JIFF was motivated by our commitment to an in-cinema festival; we invite you to immerse yourselves in the positive shared experience that generates the unique JIFF alchemy. This year’s program reaches out to all ages across the full psychedelic spectrum of politics and religiosity. The line-up includes the Australian premieres of fifty films and three series; as usual split equally between Israeli and diaspora productions, with nineteen countries represented on screen. We open with the exhilarating drama Incitement, winner of the best film award at the 2019 Ophir Awards (Israeli Oscars). The critically-acclaimed feature is directed by Yaron Zilberman, creator of the new HBO series Valley of Tears. Big international festival films include Here We Are, direct from Official Selection at Cannes Film Festival, and the new Holocaust-era filmPersian Lessons, which premiered at the 2020 Berlinale. There are rousing films about the Jewish changemakers Menachem Begin, George Soros and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Asia, starring Shira Haas, is the winner of this year’s Ophir Award for best film, and is therefore Israel’s submission to the Best International Feature Film category at the upcoming Academy Awards. It kicks off our very own mini ‘Shira fest’, which includesEsau and our super Closing Night screening of the first two episodes ofShtisel season 3. We present unique cinema binge-watch opportunities for the TV series Unchained and Nisman, and invite you immerse yourself in heavy-hitting docs ‘Til Kingdom Come, The Human Factor and Love, It Was Not. For cinephiles, there is plenty of joy to be had with Churchill and the Movie Mogul, Alan Pakula: Going For Truth and The Last Stage, a newly restored 1948 Holocaust-era gem. Harvey Keitel, Anjelica Huston, Jean Reno and Guy Pearce bring Hollywood star power to our line-up, alongside celebrated and edgy American indie filmsMinyan and Shiva Baby. Thank you all for your support in making JIFF the biggest Jewish festival internationally; see you all at the movies. —Eddie, Lindy and Erin 5 Highlight Events — Opening Night — Incitement Join us to celebrate the start of JIFF 2021 with the Australian Premiere screening of the exhilarating award-winning drama Incitement (pg 24), which follows the radicalisation of Israeli ultranationalist Yigal Amir in the year leading up to his assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. The screening will be followed by an exclusively prerecorded Q&A with the Israeli director Yaron Zilberman. MELBOURNE / CLASSIC CINEMAS, ELSTERNWICK Wed 17 Feb 7PM Opening Night event 8PM Incitement screening SYDNEY / RITZ CINEMAS, RANDWICK Thu 18 Feb 7PM Opening Night event 8PM Incitement screening ‘Til Kingdom Come — Director Q&A Discover the story behind the extraordinary relationship that exists between the American Evangelical community and the State of Israel. Director Maya Zinshtein joins us from Israel for a digital Q&A. SYDNEY / RITZ CINEMAS, RANDWICK Sunday 21 Feb, 6:30PM MELBOURNE / CLASSIC CINEMAS, ELSTERNWICK Sun 21 Feb, 6:40PM Breaking Bread — Special Event Screening Join us at Ritz Cinemas or the Classic Cinemas Rooftop for a special screening of Breaking Bread (pg 14), a mouth-watering documentary that celebrates the impact of food in creating social change, presented by Eskal. Admission includes a glass of Bellarine Estate wine or Alexander craft beer and a snack on arrival. SYDNEY / RITZ CINEMAS, RANDWICK Sun 21 Feb, 11:45AM for a 12PM film start. MELBOURNE / CLASSIC CINEMAS, ELSTERNWICK (ROOFTOP) 6 Sun 28 Feb, 8PM for a 8:15PM film start. Closing Night — Shtisel Season 3 We’re rolling out the red carpet for the Australian Premiere of the first two episodes of the new season – season 3 – of the worldwide phenomenon TV series Shtisel (pg 38). MELBOURNE / CLASSIC CINEMAS, ELSTERNWICK Tue 16 March 7:30PM Drinks 8PM Shtisel screening SYDNEY / RITZ CINEMAS, RANDWICK Wed 17 March 7:30PM Drinks 8PM Shtisel screening “JIFF for me is about connection. Stories and ideas which have become seemingly distant and irrelevant, are brought back to us, and feel personal and relatable. We can then connect to our shared and diverse past, to Israeli culture, and best of all, to each other.” —JIFF PATRON ELLIE AJZNER “I love everything about the Jewish Film Festival. I am interested in the Holocaust films and the Israeli films. I enjoy meeting everyone I know in the foyer and I encourage all my friends to come.” —JIFF PATRON LUBA OLENSKI See pages 50, 51 & 54 for the full list of JIFF events. Tickets at jiff.com.au and participating cinema box offices. 7 ITALY — 2020, 100 MIN ISRAEL, FRANCE — 2020, 113 MIN DIRECTOR — Giulio Base DIRECTOR — Roy Krispel LANGUAGE — Italian (English subtitles) LANGUAGE — Hebrew, Arabic (English subtitles) AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE A Starry Sky Above the Roman Ghetto Abu Omar (UN CIELO STELLATO SOPRA IL GHETTO DI ROMA) Under a strict military curfew, grieving Palestinian father Salah (Kais Nashif, Tel Aviv FEATURE The past interlaces with the present: on Fire) sets out on the road to attempt to the discovery of a mysterious yellowed cross the Israeli border. Along the way, he is photograph depicting a little girl will lead helped by a Jewish pregnant woman. FEATURE Christian and Jewish students to search for A drama punctuated with a quiet and the truth. They undertake a journey through deadpan humour, Abu Omar is a tender the memory of a painful past that is hard to journey of comradery and kindness despite forget, such as the memory of the raid on the grief. Jewish ghetto of Rome. Premiered at the 2020 Tokyo Film Festival. MELB (CLASSIC CINEMAS) Tue 23 Feb ★ 6:50PM MELB (CLASSIC CINEMAS) Sun 7 Mar 12:10PM Mon 22 Feb 8:40PM Tue 16 Mar 2:20PM Tue 2 Mar 2PM MELB (LIDO CINEMAS) Sat 13 Mar 4:30PM Tue 2 Mar 6:30PM MELB (LIDO CINEMAS) Sun 14 Mar 12:15PM Sat 6 Mar 2:15PM SYD (RITZ CINEMAS) SYD (RITZ CINEMAS) Tue 23 Feb ★ 6:15PM Mon 8 Mar 8:50PM 8 ★ Accompanied by an event. See pages 50, 51 & 54 for more information. GERMANY, POLAND, UK — 2020, 102 MIN DIRECTOR — Thor Klein LANGUAGE — English, Polish (English subtitles) AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE Adventures of a Mathematician “A compelling look at the dawn of the nuclear age.” — The Hollywood Reporter FEATURE FEATURE Based on Stanislaw Ulam’s autobiography, Adventures of a Mathematician offers a fascinating glimpse into one of the greatest scientific minds of the 20th century. Stanislaw (Philippe Tlokinski), a Polish Jewish mathematician, is offered an opportunity to work on a top-secret project in New Mexico. Along with a French woman (Esther Garrel, Call Me By Your Name) who he marries after a whirlwind romance, Stan moves to